Micah 6 · The Lantern

The Case against Israel

Hear now what the LORD says; Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

O my people, what have I done to you? and in which have I wearied you? testify against me.

Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened? "O my people, what have I done to you, or in what way have I injured you, or wherein have I wearied you?" This language indeed is more fit from me to you who insult me.

(Verse 3 onwards) O my people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

"For the Lord will judge his people, and he will [give] comfort among his servants." The reason for the previous praise is stated: "For the Lord will judge his people," that is, the Jewish people, to whom he revealed great miracles and assigned his prophets so that the people would not sin.

For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the LORD.

With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

Is everyone who is turning from sin to faith, turning from sinful practices (as if they were his mother) to life? I shall call in evidence one of the twelve prophets, who says, "Am I to make an offering of my firstborn son for my impiety? Should I offer the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?" Can the mother buy her way to God by giving up her firstborn?

For what is asked of you, O man? Only that you fear God: seek for him, walk after him, follow in his ways. "With what shall I win over the Lord?

(Vers. 6, 7.) What shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bow down before the Most High God? Shall I offer burnt offerings to Him, and yearling calves? Can the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fattened goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? LXX: Where shall I find the Lord?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

"But God,"[adulterers and fornicators say,] "is good and most kind." He is "merciful, compassionate and rich in mercy," which "he prefers to every sacrifice." "He desires not so much the death as the repentance of the sinner." He is "the Savior of all people, and especially of the faithful." Therefore the children of God must also be "merciful" and "peacemakers," "forgiving eac…

Forget about burnt offerings, countless sacrifices and oblations of firstborn, he is saying. If you are concerned to appease the divinity, practice what God ordered you in the beginning through Moses. What in fact is that?

Here is a priest who serves at every hour with great fear while walking humbly with the Lord his God in accordance with the word of the prophet. Meanwhile another priest is hardly capable of having that much fear even when he is about to die and enter into the last judgment before his Lord.

The Punishment of Israel

The LORD’s voice cries to the city, and the man of wisdom shall see your name: hear the rod, and who has appointed it.

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

For its rich men are full of violence, and its inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your sins.

You shall eat, but not be satisfied; and your casting down shall be in the midst of you; and you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you deliver will I give up to the sword.

You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine.

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and its inhabitants a hissing: therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people.

Micah6

The Case against Israel

The Punishment of Israel